It still frequently happened, however, that several provinces were united under one ruler; and such was especially the case with five central provinces of Nippon, including the great cities of Miyako, Ōsaka and Sakai, which five provinces formed the patrimony of a prince who bore the title of Kubō-Sama—Sama meaning lord, and Kubō general or commander. This title the Portuguese rendered into _Emperor_, and it was almost precisely equivalent to the original sense of the _Imperator_ of the Romans, though still more exactly corresponding to Cromwell’s title of _Lord-general_. This Kubō or Shōgun, as he was otherwise called, was acknowledged by all the other princes as in some respect their superior and head. The other rulers of provinces bore the title of Shugo, or Yakata, which the Portuguese rendered by the term _King_. Reserving to themselves, as their personal domain, a good half of the whole extent of their territories, these chiefs divided the rest among certain great vassals, called Tono, Kunishū, or Kunidaimiō, who were bound to military service in proportion to the extent of the lands which they held; which lands, after reserving a portion for their private domain, these nobles distributed in their turn to other inferior lords, called Yoriki, who held of them upon similar conditions of military service, and who had still beneath them, upon the same footing, a class of military vassals and tenants, called Dōshin, and corresponding to the men-at-arms of the feudal times of Europe. The actual cultivators of the lands—as had also been, and still to a considerable extent was, the case in feudal Europe—were in the condition of serfs. Thus it happened, that, as in feudal Europe, so in Japan, great armies might be very suddenly raised; and war being the chief employment of the superior classes, and the only occupation, that of the priesthood excepted, esteemed honorable, the whole country was in a constant state of turbulence and commotion.